HIST-1400-A01 – Sept.
11, 2023
Manitoba becomes a province (1870)
William MacDougall’s proclamation
o On Dec. 1, 1869, he prepares a speech in the middle of a snowstorm that
proclaims himself the leader of the new Manitoba region
He delivers this speech while crossing the Canadian-American border
from North Dakota into the Manitoba territory
Him doing so caused the Hudson’s Bay Company to delay the land
transfer process to Canada for the Rupert’s Land purchase of the
Northwest Territory to 1870
o When news reaches back in Ottawa, MacDonald forces MacDougall to return and
sends Donald Smith in his stead to handle the Manitoba problem
Donald Smith’s arrival in Manitoba politics
o He was a Red River native, having had experience in Upper Fort Garry while
understanding the complexities of the Métis
o He discusses Manitoba’s future with Louis Riel and people along the Red River
area at a meeting in 1870
o While Smith drafts a speech, Riel aids in translation in French, suggesting the
attending Red River communities to draw up demands in a list as a committee
o Smith would later become the vice president of the Canada Pacific Railway
company
Riel’s response to Smith’s proposals and formation of the Red River committee
o In agreement, Riel helps draw together a committee of 20 representatives from
both the Anglophonic and Francophonic communities within the Red River area
Many of the demands they would draft up would later become part of
the Manitoba Act
Upon finalizing their draft of demands, they would send 3 emissaries to
Ottawa to deliver them, including Father Richot
Richot was a strong advocate for the Métis while remaining stern against
the federal government, who spoke with Cartier in MacDonald’s absence
due to his encroaching illness
o Though they would reach an agreement, bad tidings in Red River would
eventually collapse Métis hopes of equal negotiations
o Thomas Scott was an Orange Order migrant seeking to decimate French and
Métis grip on Manitoba to allow for the prospering of an Anglophonic western
Canada
Alongside John Schultz, they attempted to organize armed resistances
against the Métis people and capture Riel in an attempt to try him for
treason against Canada
Scott would be arrested by the Métis and imprisoned by them, charged
with sedition against the Manitoba provisional government, which had
legal precedence due to Riel’s lawyer background and understanding
Scott proved a difficult prisoner, who constantly berated and verbally
attacked the Métis, wishing them harm and to destroy their seat of power
by having Riel executed to remove the half-breeds
He would be tried and executed on the basis of sedition by the
provisional government, inciting vengeance in the Ontario Orangemen
communities and they organize an armed force to attack the Métis
Manitoba officially joins Canada as a province
o The Manitoba Act of 1870 would be drafted in May but would not come into
effect until July 15, causing the Métis to celebrate with a semblance of
recognition by the Ottawa government
Their goal of joining Canada as a province with the national benefits of
therein instead of a territory which was privy to federal division was
achieved
Manitoba could elect itself as Premier within its own provincial legislature
Both French and English would become official languages of the province,
setting the precedence of bilingualism in Canada
To satisfy demands by both Anglophonic and Francophonic communities,
the Dual School System would be established by allowing equal funding to
both schools of instruction in French or English
Métis settlers would be granted their title of lands along the Red River
and Assiniboine River, yet the federal government would often belay
these title grants until well into the 20th Century
Métis children would be given scrips, lines of credit to redeem, to which
would grant them 160 acres of land at the age of 21
Manitoba however would not be allowed to control its own provincial
resources and land, handled instead by the federal government, and
could not influence its own land policies and enhance its industrial
developments
The treatment of the Métis
o By July 1870, 2000 Orangemen troops sought revenge for Thomas Scott, going as
far to dismantle and deconstruct the Métis government by killing and causing
many to flee
Riel would take flight to St. Boniface and remain on the run for 2 years,
while Goulet would be murdered as he attempted to flee in the Red River
Many Métis children would not be given their scrips and began
questioning MacDonald’s legitimacy to their grants, where the federal
government was proving extremely slow to distributing their credit if not
changing the requirements to receive them as to disqualify any Métis
Many land speculators from eastern Canada arrived to purchase and sell
land, often buying Métis lands from those desperate to receive their
scrips and then reselling to Ontario settlers
Many Métis would be unable to understand the legal
documentation presented to them due to speculator interference
by often causing them to sign whilst drunk
Only by 2000, the Métis Federation had won a lawsuit against the federal
government to distribute their owed scrips, where the Supreme Court
ruled in their favor as the government’s actions were dishonorable of the
Crown, allowing them to receive $11 billion in compensation while
maintaining negotiations
The Métis had mostly fled deeper into the western Canadian territories,
into modern Saskatchewan, as more eastern Canadian settlers replaced
them, disallowing them to receive their scrips by the federal government
in so doing